UC Irvine chemists are preparing to carry out one of the first large-scale airborne measurements of greenhouse gases in the skies of California, including the presence of carbon dioxide, a source of controversy among scientists and policymakers.

Don Blake, chair of chemistry at UCI, will take more than 600 air samples from a DC-8 research aircraft that will traverse the state during four flights that will be held during June 18-24.

The flights are sponsored by the California Air Resources Board, which is expanding beyond its chief role of measuring air quality to the science of climate change.

“We’ll be taking preliminary data that will help people plan research flights that NOAA will do in 2010,” says Blake, head of the renowned Blake-Rowland Laboratory. His colleague, Sherwood Rowland, shared the 1995 Nobel Prize for identifying threats to the ozone layer. And Blake is ranked as one of the world’s leading analysts of atmospheric gases.

The upcoming flights come amid a scientific dispute over the amount of man-made carbon that’s being released into the atmosphere. The Brookings Institution recently released a study that says that Southern California cities have a comparatively small carbon footprint. A study by Purdue University found just the opposite. (Read previous story.)